By Robert Olsen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Christian Studies, University of Mobile
What Do We Do Now?
Matthew 28:16–20
Worship (16–18)
One of the things that separates Christianity from all other religions is that we worship a God who loved us enough that He became human to live and die for His people. For Christians salvation depends upon Jesus being able to die on our behalf.
Christians throughout the centuries have marveled at this and have emphasized this point; for atonement to be made, humans have to pay for their sin through death.
However, because we are sinners, our death only results in our damnation.
Only a perfect human can make a sacrifice on our behalf and the only one who can be perfect is God.
Therefore the incarnation involved God becoming human because a human has to pay the price for sin but only God can pay the price. The mystery of the incarnation hinges on Jesus being both fully God and fully man.
Many skeptics claim the Bible never states that Jesus is actually God. However, the Bible indicates Jesus’ divinity at many points.
This section in Matthew is one such instance. The disciples worshipped Jesus. For Jews, the only thing worthy of worship is God; anything else is idolatry and yet here we see devout Jews worshipping Jesus, and Jesus allows it.
This means Jesus is surely God and our salvation depends upon His being divine. The fact that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus also demonstrates Jesus’ divinity.
Mission (19–20a)
Based on Jesus’ authority, He has the right to command His followers. Jesus is our Lord and loyal subjects obey their superior.
The Great Commission, as this statement is called, is one of the most crucial commands given to the Church.
It is common to hear Christians talk about the Great Commission and many churches emphasize doing missions overseas but often we neglect the call to make disciples. It is one thing to tell somebody the gospel. It is another thing to bring them up in the knowledge of God. Preaching the gospel is necessary but discipleship is too. Many churches focus on the first part and ignore the second part.
So while churches need to support international missions we need to focus on discipling the members of our own body. Never overlook the importance of teaching the Church the key aspects of what it means to be a Christian. Christians need to know what the Bible says so they are not led astray by false teaching and can live out the gospel properly.
One of the key teachings of the church is the command to baptize believers.
Baptism is a mark of a Christian. One who decides to follow Jesus shows his allegiance by being baptized. It is the public expression of an inward change.
Baptism needs to follow salvation — it does not precede it. Poor teaching regarding baptism often leads people to think that baptism is somehow involved in the salvation process which turns the focus off of Christ’s redeeming work on the cross and onto an external work, which is against grace.
Presence (20b)
Because Christ is with us we can be encouraged that He knows everything we are going through and we can be confident He will be with us even unto death. There is no place we can go where Christ cannot be there with us. This should give us confidence to obey Jesus no matter where it leads us.
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